Deal for use of former Rosendale Elementary School by towns of Rosendale, Marbletown and Rochester is closer to completion

ROSENDALE, N.Y. -- Officials with the towns of Rosendale, Marbletown, and Rochester hope it is only a matter of months before they secure joint municipal use of the vacant former Rosendale Elementary School on Lucas Avenue Extension.

Supervisors for the towns during telephone interviews last week said they are nearing a completion of a deal with the Rondout Valley school district to let the local governments have free use of the building until district bonds expire and then turn it over for a dollar.

"If the district goes to sell it they aren't going to get fair market value for it at all," Rochester town Supervisor Carl Chipman said. "So this way we're taking something that's been bought and paid for by the taxpayers and still using it for the benefit of the same taxpayers."

While the school, which closed in June 2012, is within the Rosendale municipal boundaries and a Marbletown town line sign is only 57 feet from the school's driveway, getting to Rochester takes a few minutes along Lucas Avenue Extension.

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"I think it's about four miles from our boundary," Chipman said.

"We do realize it would be a little farther for people to drive, but you have to realize that our community center is an old Agway warehouse," he said. "It's not an office space. It's terrible to heat and terrible to cool in the summer time. So we're looking to garner savings, but if it doesn't garner savings we're not going to do it in the first place."

Chipman sees Rochester making less use of the building than Rosendale and Marbletown.

"If we do this, and it's still an 'if,' we'd have to look and see what our needs are and if we're really going to get cost savings on it," he said.

"What would probably play out is to take what's in our community center, which is code enforcement, planning and zoning, and move that to Rosendale, as well as move the courthouse. That would allow me to close to buildings that I have right now," Chipman said. "The busiest departments that have the most traffic from people are the town Clerk's Office, the Assessor's office, and my office," he said. "That wouldn't move."

Marbletown Supervisor Michael Warren said the current Marbletown Town Hall is out of space and budget limits preclude new construction for new offices.

"Of course there's 4,500 square feet (in the school) which is too big for Marbletown and too big for Rosendale by itself," he said. "There is also a critical need right now for a regional court system because none of our three courts meet the codes for the court system."

The municipalities will use a $10,000 grant from the Dyson Foundation for a study of renovation needs of the school.

Rosendale town Supervisor Jeanne Walsh said most of the Rosendale town offices could be relocated to the new space.

"I'm hoping that in 2013 we will be moving in there," she said.

"We would move Town Hall," Walsh said. "We rent space for (the Building Department) and assessors and planning and zoning, so we would move those there. We would move police and we would move court."

The supervisors also consider having a centrally located building with a gym as a possibility for intermunicipal recreation programs.

"We would be adding a cafeteria and a kitchen that I can't come anywhere close to matching with what I have right now," Chipman said. "We're also getting a gym. All of us would be able to expand our programs for kids and for the seniors and by consolidating this way I think we can save a lot of money."